John Terry blasts 'borderline offensive' Chelsea after manager job snub

Updated: 23 Jun 2026 12:16 BST |
3 min read

John Terry has taken aim at Chelsea for not considering him to become the club’s interim manager after Liam Rosenior was sacked during the season.

Rosenior left Stamford Bridge in April after just three months in charge and he was replaced by academy coach Calum McFarlane, who saw out the remainder of the season.

Terry, who also works with Chelsea’s academy, had previously admitted he was disappointed to have not been asked to work with the senior squad and responded to Piers Morgan’s comments suggesting the oversight had been ‘borderline offensive’.

“Now Piers, you’re 100% spot on,” Terry said on Piers Morgan Uncensored. “’I’ve never thought that I could be Chelsea manager, but when a manager leaves the football club and Chelsea are looking for an interim manager, there was no one in the building, the academy building or the first team building, that was more qualified than me in terms of their qualifications.

“More importantly, and above all of that, whether it was for one game or two games, there was no one more Chelsea than me. And again, touching on the supporters, giving the supporters what they wanted at that time.

“Now, did I think that I deserve the Chelsea manager job long-term? Absolutely not. Because Chelsea is way bigger than me. If I want to go into that, I need to go on my journey to then get the Chelsea job.”

Terry not considered for Chelsea job or backroom staff role

Having spent virtually his entire playing career captaining Chelsea, Terry spent three years as assistant coach to Dean Smith at Aston Villa before returning to Stamford Bridge in 2022 in a coaching consultancy role.

Terry left his role to reunite with Smith at Leicester in 2023 but returned months later to become an academy coach at Chelsea in a position he still holds now.

Interim coach McFarlane did not ask Terry to be part of his backroom staff and he was handed the role despite not having the UEFA Continental Pro License required to permanently manage in the Premier League – something which the former Blues skipper does possess.

McFarlane managed eight games across two interim spells but he won just two of those matches, with Xabi Alonso set to take over next month as full-time manager.